A new trustees report found the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) Trust Fund that covers critical payments to retirees will run out of money in late 2032, at which point only 78% of retirement benefits will be payable.
The Social Security funding shortfall is expected a year earlier than projected last year’s projections.
Medicare ’s hospital insurance trust fund will be unable to pay full benefits in 2033, which is unchanged from last year’s estimate.
According to the report, the new funding shortfall is mainly the result of lower projected birth rates, reduced immigration and reduced trust fund revenue due to the costs of Republicans’ Big Beautiful Bill that Trump signed into law last summer.
Nancy Altman, president of the Social Security Works advocacy group, said the latest report takes “Donald Trump’s second term policies into account: A tax bill that largely benefited the wealthy, economy-wrecking tariffs, a needless war with Iran, and hostility to immigrants. All of these have reduced the amount of money going into Social Security, weakening the system’s finances.”
It’s up to Congress to make policy changes that would lessen or stop the looming benefit cuts, and actions taken to avoid similar outcomes in the past included raising the retirement age and taxing benefits.
No worries, though. Mike Johnson was caught on tape on June 8 describing how the Trump administration plans to root out fraud, abuse, and waste across government programs to keep billionaires entitlement programs’ payments on auto-pilot safe for elderly Americans.
The GOP doesn’t want to talk about it.
Seattle Times, Forbes, Newsweek